NanoStudio 2
4+

iPad Screenshots

Description

NanoStudio 2 is a powerful music production environment for recording, synthesis, sampling, arranging, editing and mixing. It’s the successor to the original NanoStudio, an app held in high regard by musicians for many years for its usability, quality and productivity.

NanoStudio 2 builds upon the same design principles as its predecessor and introduces a huge range of extra features. An all-new audio engine delivers truly professional sound quality, highly optimized to handle complex projects with large numbers of instruments and effects.

NanoStudio 2 also hosts external Audio Unit (AUv3) instruments and audio/MIDI effects. A library of all your AU instruments and presets is maintained so they’re tagged, searchable and just as accessible as NanoStudio’s own internal instruments.

Obsidian is NanoStudio’s built-in synth. It has 3 oscillators with 16 note polyphony and 7 different synthesis methods including analogue, wavetable, FM, multi-saw and phase distortion. It also supports samples and multisamples which may be split by note or velocity. Obsidian has 18 different filter types, including resonant analogue, super clean digital, formant, comb and waveshaping. Nearly every parameter can be modulated via the synth’s 5 envelopes, 5 LFOs and 10 configurable macro controllers, and modulation connections can be assigned with just a few taps. 300 factory patches are supplied with macros set up and ready to go. It’s easy to create your own patches and there are many more professionally produced patches available as IAP.

Slate is NanoStudio’s second built-in instrument, a sample/synthesis-based performance pad which makes it easy to tap out drum beats. Slate comes with 500 quality factory samples ranging from multisampled acoustic drums with natural variations through to cutting-edge electronic percussion and effects. 50 factory kits are include, and it’s easy to construct your own drum kits using the factory samples or your own. Slate can also be used with samples of just about anything: vocals, guitar riffs, synth pads – you name it.

There are powerful editors for song arrangement, MIDI, automation and samples. All share a consistent user interface so you’ll be up to speed with them and making music in no time.

Everything’s brought together by a mixer with unlimited tracks, track grouping and audio/MIDI sends. Tracks may have an unlimited number of insert effects with 11 built-in effects to choose from including reverb, sidechain compressor/expander, EQ with spectrum analysis, look-ahead limiter, delay, exciter, chorus, flanger and phaser. You can add AU audio/MIDI effects to the chain and use them just like an internal effect.

There are many mixdown options available with quality settings up to 32 bit/96kHz and support for file formats including wav, aiff, ogg and M4A. You can mixdown track stems in a single operation or select just a region of the song - great for resampling.

There are many more improvements, fixes and tweaks in this version. Please visit the Blip Interactive forums or refer to the in-app user manual for the full list.

Ratings and Reviews

4.8 out of 5

95 Ratings

95 Ratings

iPodTodd123
, 04/26/2019

Nice!

This is definitely my new favorite mobile DAW. I can’t imagine how much effort it must have taken one developer to create this masterpiece. From the workflow to the color scheme to the included sounds, to the massive obsidian synth and slate drum machine. There are so many good things about obsidian alone, it allows you to combine several different synthesis types, has a lot of modulation options and sounds great. It is all really well polished and I haven’t had any crashes or even hiccups yet with my device. I do hope many people use this DAW and the dev continues work on it to make it the best on iOS.

That being said, nanostudio 2 is lacking some features that are pretty necessary, the main ones being audiobus support, IAA, auv3 parameter automation and audio tracks. Which are apparently in the works except IAA, and not sure about automation. Sadly it looks like I won’t be able to use my inter app audio apps and the user interface for some audio units are just plain bad, trying to fit an entire app onto a small plugin screen sometimes just can’t be done well in more fully featured apps.

Overall, it’s a great app and really fun to use.

Guycoolio
, 01/21/2019

The King Lives Again!

Long live the King! NanoStudio was my first DAW on iOS. It was great and set the bar for creating professional sounding tracks on iOS. I reluctantly had to move on over the past 5 years to other great music programs like Cubasis, Gadget, BM3, AUM, etc. However, I was pleased to learn about NanoStudio 2 which has raised the bar once again in my opinion for the creation of high quality professional tracks on iOS.

Workflow remains fantastic for getting quick ideas out and for generating entire songs. The sound of “Slate” and “Obsidian” are exceptional. Obsidian in particular competes strongly against high end desktop software synths and/or serious hardware synths with regard to sound, routing, and overall flexibility. The mixer and effects are equally terrific. In fact, the entire app feels stable, CPU friendly, and provides an overall enjoyable user experience.

As always, there are some additional wish lists of features (e.g., audio tracks is coming) but the current program is simply a cut above the rest of the pack. Kudos and thanks again to the developer for dusting off the cobwebs of this awesome classic.

Dj Ed Nine
, 02/01/2019

Brilliant

Love the workflow as there isn’t a big learning curve and started to make beats instantly. The GUI is quite pleasing and feels real smooth. the sounds are amazing from the synth to the drum kits. Editing and manipulating of synth and drum sounds is a treat. I am able to add my own sample folders into the instruments-slate-user folder. Big +. Would love to be able to adjust global swing after recording sounds, a shortcut option for kits, sounds and folders for quick access instead of the menu diving. Another thing that would be cool is to have all the left side track setup tabs, also be available from the instrument menu. Clip/scene start and stop in the instrument overview will be a game changer. Holding and moving the curser around would be nice. Other then that it’s an amazing daw. It’s definitely my number one now! Looking forward to the development.